Scarred
by bookchic23
Summary: Mello's reaction when he comes home after the explosion and sees himself for the first time. MattxMello fluff, can be taken as friendship or shonen-ai.


Yay

Yay! It's summer! Death Note is my current crack. Have you noticed that the fandom is actually a lot more cheerful then the actual story? Anywho, onto the fic.

Thanks to the ingenious Slinkers (Deviantart) for the comic that inspired this fic.

"Matt!"

Matt glanced up briefly from his DS lite. His roommate, Mello, had just returned home. He'd been gone for days on end, always for the Kira case. He and Matt barely saw each other anymore. And when they did, Mello would order Matt around like a servant.

"Matt!"

Well, whatever he needed, he could get himself. The fat lazy slob. He needed to beat this boss on Pokemon…

There was a muted _thud_ on the carpet in the hallway. "MAATT!"

There was a frantic note in Mello's voice this time. Something was wrong.

"I'm coming." Matt hit the pause button on his game. He slowly crawled out of the little "nest" all the computer screens and consoles formed around him. He turned the corner and walked into the hallway.

Mello was kneeling hunched over on the carpet, dripping wet from the rain outside. He was clutching the right side of his face, and his leather outfit had a several large rips, stained in blood. He was clenching his teeth and letting his breath out in tiny gasps.

"Mello!" Matt ran over toward his friend. "Jesus Christ, what happened to you?"

Mello threw his arm over Matt's shoulder. "Help me to the couch. I need to lie down."

Matt slowly hoisted Mello and himself up and slowly walked towards the couch, gently kicking the consoles in his way aside. Mello wasn't all that heavy, despite the freakish truckload amount of chocolate he consumed on a daily basis.

Matt pulled off Mello's jacket and eased him onto the couch, where he lay, panting and still clutching his eye.

"I'll get you some water," said matt, turning for the kitchen.

"Fuck that. I need coffee. Espresso."

Matt grimaced at Mello's treating him like a nursemaid, but left anyway.

"So, care to explain to me why you showed up on my doorstep, dripping wet and bleeding?" Matt asked later as he placed a damp towel on Mello's face.

"Hey, It's _our_ doorstep, jackass, and I was wet because, as you may not have noticed from your little videogame reverie, it was raining."

"I wasn't- wait. You WALKED here?!"

"What was I supposed to do?" Mello asked as he broke of a piece of chocolate from his pocket and dropped it into his coffee. "I'm in the mafia, for God's sake. I can't just hail a cab, like everyone else. Geez, Matt." He drank the coffee like a shot glass.

"And the bleeding?" Matt strung a strip of gauze around Mello's arm.

"It was the investigation team. They found my hideout, killed most of my men. I escaped, but I had to blow it up. Ow!" Mello winced as Matt tightened the gauze around his arm.

" Shush. What happened to the rest of the team?"

"Don't know." Mello lifted the washcloth off his face. "How's it look?"

Matt started a bit.

The skin surrounding Mello's eye, and down his shoulder, had all but been burned off by the blast. It would probably leave a scar for the rest of his life.

"How is it?" Mello asked again.

Matt said nothing. How could he tell him-?

Mello gave a "tch!" of disgust and lifted himself from the couch, attempting to suppress a grunt of pain.

"Where are you going?" Matt called.

"To find a mirror," he replied, turning towards the hall.

Before Matt could follow after him, he heard a stomach-turning scream.

Mello, of course, was staring at his reflection in the hallway mirror, clutching his face in frozen horror.

"Mello!" Matt grabbed him by the shoulders, turning him away from the mirror to face him.

"Matt-" Mello suddenly flung himself around his friend, pulling them both to the floor. Mello clung to Matt's vest, his body shaking with loud sobs.

Matt was suddenly overcome with affection for his friend. He wrapped his arms around the distraught blonde.

"Oh, Matt," he sobbed brokenly. "My face…my face …"

"Shhh." Matt drew him in closer. "It's okay."

Mello really needed him, he realized. Sure, he was a genius, but the Kira case was exhausting him both physically and mentally. He could barely even take care of himself. And now to be, quite literally, scared for life-he was still just a kid, after all. He could pull that tough-guy act all he wanted, but he still knew him too well for that

They stayed on the rug for a long time, holding one another.

"It's okay," Matt whispered softly, rubbing Mello's back gently. "It's okay."

I have a thing for making pretty boys cry in my fics, don't I?

I actually haven't gotten this far in the series yet, so I hope it's still in character. Hope ya liked it!


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